MAN Automotive celebrates a great 2017

While 2017 was characterised by an overall market decline, MAN Automotive has reported a 15-percent annual sales growth for its southern African operation. Overall, sales of trucks and buses increased by 298 units – from 1 969 trucks and buses for 2016, to 2 267 units sold in 2017.

In South Africa this growth has been even more profound. When looking at its truck sales only, which grew by 324 units year on year, growth equates to 26 percent.

“Clearly, our greatest driver of this growth has come from our long-haul TGS and TGX model derivatives. In this segment, MAN managed to chalk up 1 210 sales, which is a growth of 416 units (or 52 percent) compared to the 2016 calendar year,” says Eren Gunduz, head of the Truck Sales Division at MAN.

“During the year, our order books filled up consistently – to the point where if we had more stock we could have satisfied even more customers sooner.

“Our production team has worked on increasing capacity for these truck model types, and, as such, we go into the first quarter of 2018 with a vastly improved supply rate to market – however, demand is still exceeding supply at this point,” Gunduz adds.

Regarding its bus business, MAN has remained market leader with a share of 27,4 percent, which represents a market-share growth of 0,4 percent in a market that declined by 11,4 percent

“The Volkswagen (VW) Volksbus continued to gain favour in many operations, and we can see that this brand has also grown in numbers across the subcontinent compared to 2016.

“When we add the VW and MAN volumes together, we achieved a total market share of 37,4 percent, which was on par with 2016 levels,” enthuses Philip Kalil-Zackey, head of bus sales at MAN.

“My team and I are ready to meet the challenges that present themselves, and will continue to work very hard to maintain trust of our customers. I also have no doubt that our new products will bring additional customers into the MAN family,” concludes Kalil-Zackey.